Kitchens and Christmas

So, here it is...The Kitchen finished. Well, just about finished, I still have to finish painting the walls. But here it is all cleaned up. Note the Pot Filler faucet over the stove, the Hot water dispenser at the farm house sink, the open shelving for plates and glasses. The cabinets are KraftMaid, semi custom cabinets from Home Depot. It takes a lot of work to make that kind of cabinet look like this! The cabinets are a good quality but to tell the truth, the staff at home depot aren't that used to creating custom kitchens like this, especially in this area where they are usually trying to fit small kitchens into houses turned condo or basements turned apartment. My Home Depot kitchen designer, Aimee Zaslaw is quite a different story. I sketched up this design (generally) and she really made it work with what KraftMaid had to offer. She actually took this picture too when I had her out for lunch to see her work first hand. This is by far my biggest art project--the all consuming task of working on this gut renovation has been outrageously tiresome, worrisome and FABULOUS! If I had the time and the money I would so flip houses. What a rush. I love the house--every inch of it. My mum asked me for some ideas of what I want for Christmas and I couldn't think of anything! I feel so incredibly blessed/lucky this year to have such a wonderful place to live and raise my girls that I couldn't ask for much more! Ok, to be honest I'd like to be able to afford a cleaning lady but its hard to ask your mum for that!

I was listening to the radio a couple weeks ago--must have been npr and I heard a lady talking about a Christmas when her whole family (like 6 kids) decided they would only spend a total of $100 that year. She said it was the best Christmas ever and that they really got creative with their gift giving. Personally I think the whole idea is fun but being the oldest of 6 kids myself, I don't know how they all managed to agree on anything!

I'm knee deep working on my next article for Parts and Parcels on making attachments in mixed media art. If you have any questions on how to attach two things together feel free to email me and I'll try to cover your question in my article.

The other big news is my art show opening at Coldwell Banker Brookline Offices this Thursday night. I hung the show on Saturday and I have to say that my collages look wonder next to Rania's black and white photographs. If you're in the area please stop by and say hi!

Absolutely Unexcusable but I suppose Understandable

Ok, so it's been a little while since I last posted. BUT I've really been busy! I finished up The Cardmaker's Workbook that I've been writing for Quarry. If you like making cards, you're going to love this book! (If I do say so myself). It's not just another book filled with pretty cards, it is a designers workbook and covers all aspects of design from, composition to color, construction to supply inspiration.

My other big project is the carriage house. All 2400 feet of it. And we're finally done. Ok, mostly done. I suppose there will always be somthing left to do. This is a shot of Bec and I in the studio. I was having Matt shoot some pics for the Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine special studio issue and Bec interrupted us. (oh, did I mention that I'm writing a column now for CPS??? Check them out--coming soon is an article on gelatin printing. WHat's that? Guess you'll have to run out and get a copy to see. )

Other big news is a new show opening that I'm in starting this weekend at a branch of the Boston Public Library. See the flyer above.

I've also been busy working on the samples for the packaging of my new product that comes out in February at CHA. Talk about burning the candles at both ends!

I wouldn't say I'm the kind of person who can keep up with a blog. But I endeavor to be that person any way. I think that is probably the reason I have been putting it off (that and being so busy!) But I'm newly committed. Especially since I have so many cool new things coming on the horizon and I don't want you to miss anything!

Now, back to the studio table....

He was nothing if not predictable

Love this piece. Made it with Matt in mind but I'm pretty sure that it speaks to a lot of people. Matt is the ultimate employee. He's been with the same company since he graduated from college even though the company has gone through three (or four) different names. He works well past closing time and is always looking for something new and exciting to bring to the line up. Having said all that, he's not perfect either. Thank God, cause I wouldn't be able to live up to that standard. Even when I'm disappointed by one of his actions, or in actions as the case may be, I'm still comforted by the fact that he is, indeed, predictable. on July 8th, we celebrate our 12th anniversary and I'm quite positive I love him 12x more than I ever did. I love that our relationship is also one of the things that inspires my art.

Today I'm working on finishing up some designs for the new Card Maker's workbook in Illustrator in between watching my nieces and playing with their new puppy. Ah the life. Tomorrow I will be gathering info and writing a really dymystifing piece on working with acrylic glazes for an upcoming issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors. No rest for the weary artist! (I'm really only weary because the puppy keeps waking up the house at 5:15 every morning!)

Four Pretty Blue Eggs

Back in New Hampshire after a lovely trip to Bread Loaf in Middlebury, Vermont. I would complain about the two wrong turns I made that lead me 20 minutes out of the way but I won't because the views were too breath takingly gorgeous to have any reason to be upset. Every minute of the four and 1/2 hour drive was lovely although I'm not sure I could ever live in such a remote area.

I was visiting with my college roommate and favorite poet, Heather Fee while she is in New England attending Bread Loaf. We spent the days catching up (Heather's teaching ESL at Benjamin Franklin International School in Spain) and shopping at barn sales and little art gallerys. I found some more GREAT wooden boxes for my assemblages like the one pictured here. This piece is called Four Pretty Blue Birds and was a hit at the Brookline Open Studios. It was great to have such a great reception for these little story boxes that I created and I look forward to making more. We also came across some new wines that I had never seen. Because I judge a bottle of wine by its label I was entranced by a line of Sideshow wines. I tried to find the link to their website but no luck. But I highly reccomend them as a fun, inexpesive glass of wine for lady's night out.

After long late night talks and multiple bottles of wines we have decided that we'd like to work together some more in the future-her poetry my art.

All-in-all, a lovely weekend with a rarely seen friend who has known me longer than anyone else--even Matt. What a treasure!

Summer Time and the Living is eeeeaaaasy...

Becky's jumping, and the water is cold...

Here we are working from the remote home office on Squam Lake where the hardest decisions to make are whether to jump in the water off the dock or walk in gradually from the beach.

My brother-in-law has it a little harder as he plays single parent for a few days to his 5 year old, potty training 2 year old and a new chocolate lab puppy named Sancho.

Despite all this I am working on new and interesting projects. I just finished the manuscript and art for The Card Makers Workbook (april 2008) and we did our first photo shoot. I'm absolutely loving the shots we got and look forward to teasing you with the new cover once its ready to show off. Now I have to sit in front of the computer and finish the last 30 templates and icons that should be downloadable for the book.

Looks like I may have work as a columnist for one of my favorite magazines real soon as well.

More on all this very soon. Right now I need to go apply sunscreen on the wee ones!

Before...

This is a panorama stitch that Matt took of the new carriage house. if you look straight back, you can see little white rectangles along the back wall. Those were the windows in each of the 6 hours stalls. They used to wash the horses down by the mirror on the left hand side. What does this have to do with my creative work and this blog?? Well, besides taking up a ton of time checking and re-checking my drawings, this is the before picture of my studio! The studio will be on the back left corner of this floor. It will open up to the kitchen on the right side of the studio which will be perfect for art parties and the like.

Yesterday was my birthday and I FINALLY had a chance to go see the Joseph Cornell exhibit in Salem. WOW! It was wonderfully huge and although the lighting was a little dark and a little congested with visitors it still filled me with the desire to get some painting done.

I spent and hour pulling apart on of the old stable walls to use in my art on Friday. It felt good to be destructive. I wasn't sure that I wanted to save it but I did and after going to the Cornell exhibit, I'm glad I did. I think it will end up being both wooden boxes and surfaces to paint. Once the basement is done I'll be able to set up my compound miter saw and get busy constructing!

I really can't wait to try it out.

It will be nice to have a workshop again too. I feel like I've had my hands tied behind my back without all my tools. Did I mention that I'll have a sink in my studio too? and for my birthday, my very favorite "in-laws" have offered to get me an easel! Which I will love and adore but my favorite present was my order by post-it note to STAY IN BED MOM, and my breakfast in bed.

It's good to be the queen.

(at least for a day!)

Time Flies!

I can't believe I haven't blogged in over a month. My sincere appologies. I am still walking Tigger but we are looking for a middle schooler who can eventually take over. I do love walking him though.
School is coming to a close very quickly and it seems that there is some sort of a picnic planned for every day of the next two weeks!

The other big news is that we have finally closed on the carriage house we were planning on buying a couple streets away. We had a big Deconstructionist party and let the kids knock down walls (with safety goggles and masks on). I promise to post some of those pictures when I get them from Matt. We passed papers on June 1st and the entire upstairs was already demoed by yesterday the 4th! The guys on the crew are amazing and we are working on a house blog so that you can follow along with the progress if you're interested. More on that tomorrow.

I am just about done with The Card Maker's Workbook that I'm writing and I must say that I'm pretty happy with it. I'm also happy that the powers that be at Quarry books aren't making me change my whole entire artlog which I had completed before they remembered to tell me that they changed the procedure! YIKES! There are over 150 cards packed into this book and that would have been a lot of renumbering.

I also had a chance to hit the New York Stationery Show for the first time ever and I came across some really great products out there. It makes me want to open a store! I'm spending my time now considering setting up a Designer booth at CHA this year. We'll see how things go this summer and whether or not I can swing it.

Now I'm off to work on a new project and a demo tape...more to follow on that soon, hopefully!